Barossa 1811: 28mm Napoleonics at Molesworth

Camp Cromwell had a Saturday night away game at Dave's place at Molesworth.   Dave set up a scenario based on Barossa, Spain, March 1811.  Jim & Mark were French, Dave, Mike & Steve were British & Spanish.  Dave provided most of the troops, with a few top-ups by Mike.  The British objective is to drive the French off the hill.  The French objective is to hold it.

Mark's French are on the left on the hill.  Jim's are in the foreground.  Mike's British are on the right, Dave's in the centre & Steve's British cavalry on the far flank.  Some French cavalry & a Spanish division will come on later.

 The troops are now mostly deployed into battle formation.

Mike is attacking on the near flank.  Dave has sent a forlorn hope forward against the hill.  Steve has paused his cavalry in the face of a French square with cavalry support and is bombarding the square.

Mike's attack has been beaten off, his division broken.  Dave's division has also lost units.  The Spanish have come on the far side.

 The French counterattack in the centre, though their right has refused to advance. 

The French counterattack is really gathering steam now.  The last British grenadier unit in the centre is hanging on by good break test throws.  The Spanish deployment is realistically slow.

The British cavalry has made some desperate charges to try & save the day, but while they broke the French cavalry the French infantry have held them off.   The British centre has now broken & the British cavalry entirely shaken.  The battle is called a French victory.

Our battle saw the unusual spectacle of French lines beating off British attacks, with French commanders behaving much more sensibly than the real French usually did.   It's arguable that in the scenario the British should have had more advantage in fire power over the French than they were given, and/or they should have had some more units to reflect the fact that their 2 deep lines went further.

We used Hail Frederick rules - Hail Caesar with Camp Cromwell house rules for the Black powder era 28mm.  A good time was had by all.